Some people are a little mean when it comes to cars. I live in California and we do not put salt on the roads. For most of my state it isn't necessary. The lack of salt means our cars don't rust, so classic cars are still around decades later. This is, essentially, heaven for hot rods and classic car associations. Also for motorcycles since we are dry 330 days a year (it rains around 35 days a year). We are the opposite of England.
Old Mini Cooper
So when I see a modern version of the Mini Cooper, with working AC and proper sized tires and airbags and high probability of survival in a car crash? Yeah, I think that's perfectly okay, even if its mostly looks rather than performance. I feel similarly towards the Fiat 500. And the modern Porsche 911 only looks like the old ones. I drove an old one 3300 miles on a trip and it wasn't comfortable, or quiet, or terribly fast either. The new ones are. And they're safer.
New Mini Cooper
So I feel like retro cars with modern comforts and underpinnings are a good thing. When I was a kid we'd had several VW buses. Those were built to be light, with the engine in the back, rear wheel drive, and very light front, with the driver sitting above the front wheel. That made going around corners really interesting because you swung over the front. Their transmission was terrible. You hunted for a gear. Double clutching was sometimes necessary. It also tended to overheat, being air cooled and carbureted, so was a terrible car on mountain passes. As we used them for vacations, this was a common problem. But it doesn't have to be that way.
Clasic VW Camper Bus
Imagine the subaru Legacy with the body replaced by a VW bus. It would be all wheel drive, water cooled, turbo charged, more fuel efficient than the VW actually was, and still be roomy and light inside. Give it a couple airscoops to draw air across the engine, some crashbars to protect the driver's legs in a head-on, and then retro the instruments back to look like a real bus again. Oh, and make sure its got the multi-pane windows. I always liked those. And possibly the pop-top for the camper model. Use bamboo wood for the furniture rather than press-board and plastic. Its stronger and lighter. Class B campers are too small for a bathroom or shower, but you can sleep in them and heat your dinner or breakfast. With all wheel drive they'd work better than the real ones did, and use less gas than a big GM or Ford version. A little van doesn't need a V8 gas hog. Do this better than VW's Eurovan, the Westphalia, famously unreliable engines and terrible fuel economy and crap fuel injection. I spent hours stuck in a boring town when the one I was riding in broke down after 20 minutes of driving a load of boy scouts up 101. It wasn't ours, but it was annoying. I missed my chance for a fun train ride because of that.
Why Subaru? Because their engine was based on the VW and Porsche horizontally opposed (boxer engine), but they added water cooling and proper fuel injection. Those things are reliable and make best use of torque, which wins races and climbs mountains. The VW's strength is that the weight was on the wheels that were driving it. Apply similar approach to a modern remake, with a paddle shifter and smooth 6-speed transmission, and mind you keep the weight under control, and you could build a van worth having and still looks like a classic.
Top Gear has put its final season onto Netflix in case you didn't know. The Patagonia Special has beautiful scenery in the first half. Its the second half that gets all political because the communist president of Argentina was about to announce the country was defaulting on its loan payments to the IMF and USA, and the USA and UK are the same to ignorant communists in South America. All the mess over the car was merely distraction. Oh, and they DID default, btw. If you loan money to Argentina, you deserve what you get. A pity because its beautiful in the Andes, very like the Alps or the meadows of the high Sierras or PNW. They filmed in the early summer and its constantly raining and terribly wet. I suspect there's a lot of snow there much of the time.
In the meantime, I've been following Clarkson and Hammond on Twitter, as they film their new materials for Amazon.com, their new boss. Their runabouts at their new studio, after spending a month filming across the USA, back in the UK are Reliant Robins, the car that flips over on every corner. The Robin was a clown car, but they're road legal and were popular in the mining country where Clarkson grew up. Hammond posted that his wife bought a full sized John Deer tractor with the front shovel attachment, to use on their farm. Hammond seemed a little perturbed, but he does live on a farm in Wales so why not?
In any case, the episodes are there and they're beautifully put together and you can see them now in proper format rather than pirated on YouTube. I am looking forward to seeing the Outback Special, which is next. Its great that the guys can continue to work together despite being older men with cranky personalities, bad backs, and aches and pains from those long days that makes them cantankerous.
There's a documentary on Netflix called "Slingshot". It needs editing into a short film, maybe 20 minutes from the nearly two hours it currently runs. It is about an inventor, the guy who created the Segway, a famously useless toy for people who live in flat places and are too lazy to walk. Dean Kamen is a weirdo, but his electronics and machinery are interesting, although expensive. He invented the major patent for my insulin pump, which is good. It works great. Most of his successes are with medical technology. The segway started as a powered wheelchair that can stand up and balance on two wheels, and climb stairs. That's a great invention... but why aren't those everywhere? Weight and cost. The was one of the problems with the Segway. It was $5K. That's a lot of money for a 10 mph electric toy that can't navigate slopes and is illegal on the sidewalks in most cities and an obstacle to traffic when on the road. Useless, despite being clever in other ways. There's already a solution in place for this kind of use, and its both healthy and cheap, called a bicycle. Kamen invented something that is both more expensive and less useful.
So Dean Kamen built a relatively efficient water distiller. Its not revolutionary. He called it the same energy drag as a hair dryer, which he doesn't mention is one of the highest energy drains in the household. And since the people he made this for, poor Africans, don't have the energy grid to run something like that, his solution doesn't work. I could see these getting used out on the California coast, for isolated mansions, distilling drinking water from sea water. It still takes a lot of energy to run, and a mansion uses a lot more water than a regular house. If you run a co-generation plant you could certainly use the waste heat for this process, which would be fine, but then you need to produce even more water, and this solution doesn't scale up well. Its not revolutionary.
Also, the hand slapping thing? That's really annoying. That says "CRAZY!!" with the two exclamation points. I suspect Dean Kamen was a very spoiled child, and that's why he grew up to be a spoiled weirdo of an adult with a helicopter in his living room. He constantly compares himself to Einstein and Newton and Galileo, but he's just good with electronics and owns a machine shop. That's not genius. That's hard work.
Reading the news you'd think that the people in charge of America are taking the good drugs. They responded to the Paris attacks with "but the real danger is climate change." That does wonders for scaring people. Even the liberals are buying guns now. I am told that mainstream muslims consider ISIS to be genocidal wing working their way through a suicide cult prophecy where they all plan to die somewhere in Eastern Syria. I wish they'd hurry up and die, already. Apparently, the mainstream muslims will step in if things get worse, and put them down like mad dogs. Well? Get on with it.
Buying guns and not practicing with them is pointless and expensive. Fifteen years ago I put in several years of practice, enough to get good at rifles but then what? It is smarter to not be in places that get home invaded is far more valuable than having a gun.
Squaw Valley resort, created for millionaires. Housing on top, shops on the bottom.
Inner Cities could be turned into ultrarich compounds, with heavily armed cops on every corner to keep out the trash and the terrorists, but most rich people don't want that. They move far away from the thugs and crime and build beautiful and remote villages of mansions, though they sometimes experiment with resort settings like Squaw Valley (above). Good for visiting, probably not full time living though.
The Middle East only has about 10% of the world's oil production, rather than the 70% they used to claim. They aren't as important as they used to be, and this is the underlying cause of their panic and madness. Their population expanded with oil-for-food trading over the last 70 years. Without the oil, they won't have the food, and they will die. ISIS is killing them in advance of the famine, more or less. In the real world, the USA is the largest oil exporting nation at this time. Russia is second. People still think that the middle east is the biggest producer but that is no longer true, however Perception matters for people panic-buying oil and fuel after some atrocity happens.
Please note that yesterday's terrorist attack in San Bernardino was committed by Muslims from Saudi Arabia, not Syria, but this does not preclude an ISIS connection. The FBI is investigating. Whether they will report any ISIS connection publicly..? I do not know.
Many people skeptical of govt efficiency are taking out the Prepper Insurance Policy. Instead of trust in Popes and Presidents, these survivalist/preppers are working at Plan B also known as Beans, Bandaids and Bullets. Beans (food), bandaids (first aid), and bullets are relatively easy to stockpile, but I personally consider finding a safer neighborhood worth more, even if you end up spending money on your commute. Not getting shot in your bed or at the local grocery store because YOUR community doesn't have Muslims is worth a lot.
$80K+ Tesla S. Battery-electric.
This leads to a different problem. The work commute. Your average car gets 25-30 mpg. You can buy a new car that gets 45 mpg, but then you still use fuel and have to pay a car payment in a world where muslims have nuclear weapons. This is a bad thing, and a pretty big risk financially. If the fuel is rationed (this has happened 3 times in the past), you might not get enough to get to work. What are your options, assuming the business you work in still has any value when transportation is strictly controlled? You could spend $80K to buy a Tesla S, but that's a motive for carjacking on wheels. It says you can afford $80K for a car, and that you're willing to drive when nobody else can. This is very unwise if you wish to avoid trouble. You'd be better off staying home than risk ambush on your commute, or at the very least angry neighbors with matches. Don't flaunt your wealth in times of trouble. It's more than rude.
Many preppers buy a bicycle, but that limits you to a 20 mile daily commute, and you're at risk the entire route. It's better than walking, and offers a sort of egalitarian approach, especially if your bike and old, used, and not showy. Just be prepared for flats, so plan ahead and remember that wider tires and lower pressure, while a little slower, also suffer fewer flats and are more comfortable on bumpy roads.
A better option is motorized, with a personal fuel stockpile. A cheap used 250cc motorcycle gets around 80 mpg, nearly double what a Prius gets and able to use bike paths and trails through the woods, uncommon sites for ambush if you're smart about it. Preppers know this and are struggling to learn how to be a motorcycle mechanic after doing the basic stockpiles. This is personally expensive, but useful if things go sideways. While I LIKE the looks and charm of a motor scooter, and their fuel efficiency is unquestioned (100+ mpg), unless you live in town and commute in town (which you could do by bicycle), they aren't great on rough roads and have poor suspensions. A taller dirt bike like the above "dual sport/enduro" motorcycle is better. You trade a little fuel economy for a vehicle than can deal with rough roads, gravel, dirt, potholes, etc, and still manage to get onto the freeway in a pinch. Not a great way to ride, but you can do it. Experienced riders use these for adventure rides over mountains, carrying camping equipment and a credit card for gas stops and bed and breakfast inns with good cuisine nearby. This is a sane response to an uncertain world.
Keeping these running, and figuring out any upgrades to expand/improve performance or ride quality (progressive shocks, larger fuel tank, better seat, heated grips, better headlight, slick tires) are better done now, while the parts are available, than later when they aren't. Whichever model of motorcycle ends up most popular will also have the cheapest and most available replacement parts. Keep that in mind if you don't own your own personal machining tools. There is considerable variety out there. I do not recommend the Harley, however, because they are low-riders, too close to the pavement to make turns at speed, and lack the ground clearance and balance to deal with gravel roads. Don't laugh. Asphalt is made out of tar, and we're mining tar to turn into oil in Canada and the USA (fracking?). This caused the price of roads to go way up, and any troubles which shut off Middle Eastern supply are likely to drive the price much higher, to the point that many roads will only be paved in city limits. Not joking. That may be 10 years away, but 10 years passes pretty quickly. And it might be faster than 10 years. It is hard to predict when dealing with Muslim terrorists with nuclear weapons. After an attack, anybody who forced Tolerance about Muslims on the public? They're looking at a Blacklist. The issue is contentious, certainly, and deserves due consideration as a likely outcome from the Paris attacks. Things escalate, and there are many BAD people involved on both sides.
As American citizens, it is not our job to correct Islam. We can best serve our own security by staying out of the way of the extremists and hopefully live through this ugly chapter of history. Keep going to work, keep paying your bills, but don't take stupid risks or drive yourself crazy with worry. If the motorcycle is too much money, buy a bicycle and ride it once a month. If terrible things happen, see if your boss can work with you from home, or come up with alternative housing during your work week. People have done this before. It's not very comfortable, but you can get by this way. If that doesn't work, can your skills find you work closer to home, and if you need different skills for that, can you learn them? Give it serious thought.
Happy Thanksgiving y'all. We have turkeys running around the neighborhood. That's what you get in the country.
I don't have a picture of the local ones, so here's one from my personal archives from the Bay Area in my apartment complex with all the murderers and rapists. Sigh. The Bay Area is a bad place.
We got snow yesterday, but then it melted within a couple hours of it stopping. Unfortunately, it got COLDER afterwards so there's black ice on many roads. As we were out visiting a friend for dinner, that meant driving home on the icy roads. I did not slip, and there was a lot of mist rising, but we got home safely. I still have decent night vision, but Dad does not.
Normally we do a public charity walk on Thanskgiving, called the Turkey Trot, however it is so cold we're not going. In a couple hours it will warm up enough for a walk. And later, we'll be cleaning up all the leaves brought down by the storm. There's quite a lot of mess.
Turkey will be roasted this afternoon. And I'll make broth from the innards. And we're making mince pie, since we had pumpkin already. Good times! Hope everybody reading is spending time with their families today. My ancestors were at the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony.
So I just listened to the autobiography by Felicia Day and its good. She's very nerdy and maintains that through her narrative. Home schools, internet gaming addiction, how difficult it was to force herself to write The Guild script, and the troubles with funding additional episode. She's big about retaining control of your creative efforts. I can see that. And she explained further about her position on the whole Gamer-Gate mess, and the creepy stuff that happened to her after a blog post on it. They published her home address on her twitter account. Creepy and stalkerish.
I am not a fan of this "Pray For Paris" nonsense. France was attacked. I have cousins in Paris. This makes me angry. Prayer is what caused the problem. Tolerance of non-French zealots in their borders is what caused this. This isn't the first incident, and won't be the last. France's national identity is similar to America's, because we influenced each other's development as modern democracies. France wants to make everyone French. Islam wants to make everyone muslim, not French. The Muslims are allowed to deny being French and still live in France. France has, essentially, failed to convert them. If you allow an enemy, which muslims are, at your back, you must not be surprised when they stab you. And this is what they did. Islam hates all Westerners, by definition. This is why they attack our institutions. Islam is anti-civilization, and its entirely zealots. If you allow them in your community, they will eventually attack.
Prayer and Tolerance of Evil caused the attacks. Don't Pray for Paris. Urge them to expel Muslims from France, using maximum force. Terrify Islam. Because if they don't respond with force, next time it won't be a concert hall. The Muslims will set off a backpack nuke. Islam is ambitious and violent. That is its nature. They want to kill or convert everybody, and then tax them to keep the cult going. Islam is violence. They don't respect anything or anyone. Treat them with respect, as an enemy should be. and then apply violence to fix this situation. When there are no more Islamics in France, there will be no more terror attacks there. All civilized countries are going to have to come to terms with this reality. You can't negotiate with them. You have to expel them, remove them, with maximum force. If you don't, ISIS will buy Iran's nuclear weapons and nuke Rome, London, Paris, Rotterdam, New York City. This is what happens when you tolerate evil. Islam is evil. Islam with nuclear weapons is evil with greater ambitions, and terrible consequences result.
Don't Pray For Paris. Remind France they have nuclear weapons. Respond in the way that Islam understands. Islam is violence. Give them violence a hundred-fold in return.
